3 Fish In a Tank

It's fun to deal with those customers that want to know everything about the pet they're about to get. Set up wise, care wise, etc.

You know...until they go all crazy obsessive monster customer on you...then you just sit there wondering what you've unleashed....

In any case.
I had a couple of customers come into the store today.
To look at the fish.
As they've just set up a nice big tank...a 60 gallon I think they said it was.
Which they've had circulating for a little bit.

And they just wanted to have some answers.
As they'd gone to a different pet store before mine.
And the guy there had told them that they could only have 3 fish in their tank.
O.o
Which for a 60 gallon....unless the guy they talked to was thinking about Goldfish/Koi or Tiger Oscar Cichlids....
Didn't seem right.

And they agreed that that didn't seem right either.
So they came to my store and bumped into me. lol

Honestly.....I'm wondering if the guy meant you shouldn't add more than like 3 fish at a time.
Because that's what I tell my customers all the time.
That you don't want to add in a ton of fish to your tank all at once.
Otherwise your fish will get stressed out, and possibly die.

Sooo depending on what size of tank they have.
Depends on how many fish I tell them to add that week.
As the rule of thumb for most fish (Cichlids and Goldfish excluded) is that one inch of fish is going to need one gallon of water.
So if you have a fish that gets three inches when it's full grown, it's going to need 3 gallons of your tank.
So if you have like a 10 gallon tank, you have 10 inches of fish.
A 60 gallon tank would then be 60 inches of fish.

We usually recommend adding no more than half of your inches into your tank at once.
So the 10 gallon tank usually is 2 or 3 fish.

While the 60...I told the customers that I would recommend only adding 5 or 6 fish this week. Just to see how they do. And then add in others in the next week.

Talking to them, I discovered that they were really interested in getting some angelfish.
But since their tank is brand new, I cautioned (and they listened!) that you should wait to buy the angelfish until the tank is more established. Like they would be the last fish you add into the tank, because they can be more delicate/sensitive to new tanks.
-Which the other guy had failed to tell them.-

So I spent a good twenty or so minutes talking to them about the various fish, weighing their options, telling them what order I would recommend getting their fish in, etc.

And it was really rewarding.
To hear how appreciative they were of the help I offered them.
That I was willing to teach them what I knew.
So that they could start off their tank on the right foot.

lol.
So now I'm just crossing my fingers that they don't end up having a ton of struggles with their tank because of information I told them. :S
After all....each tank is going to be different, will have different issues, I just hope they don't have any major ones.... :S

-Sarnic Dirchi